Limit switches DO NOT work

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

limit switches do not work on X,Y or Z

2

Can you give a bit more detail?

3

Hello John,
Assuming that you, like me, are assembling your new X-Carve, I might have a suggestion worth checking. I just finished putting mine together last weekend and I had trouble with the homing too. After a bit of double checking, I realized I had connected the black wire to the wrong end of the limit switch. I also had to move the X & Y stops further from the edge to get them to engage before the dust shoe mounts hit the corner.

I hope this helps.

Thanks
Jason

4

THANKS. im going to check the connections…

5

John, when you say not working do you mean your machine won’t home or the switches don’t prevent the machine from crashing into the ends?

Note the switches/wiring that come with the machine are homing switches only, not actual limit switches. After you home the machine, these switches don’t do anything.

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6

i didnt realize that…i thought they limited the movement so it would STOP

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7

The out of the box kit/instructions don’t do this. Although it can be done. The easiest way most folks take care of this is with homing switches and set up “soft limits”. Do some searching on how to set these up. There are guides already out there.

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They do…but only during the “homing” sequence.

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Just to muddy the water a bit!

The homing switches can also act as “Hard Limits” if you have $21 set to 1 …

Grbl - Hard Limits

By default, this is not set on X-Carves though. You would really want to have one on either end of each axis to use “Hard Limits” correctly with each pair wired in series.

That being said, a lot of people enable “Soft Limits” which works pretty well.

{:0)

Brandon Parker

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Thanks for all the feedback…John

11

I have a limiter switch issue. My issue is that none of my limiter switches seem to be working. My z probe works fine. I checked to see if the switches were functioning with my multimeter, and they, in fact, were working when closed. I checked the screws on the block to see if the signal was sent down the line, and it was. Then I checked with the machine inspector, and no matter what I did, the switches did not show engaged. I set $5=1, and all that did was show the switches green, but when I engage and disengage the switches manually, the status doesn’t change. I then took apart my X-controller and ensured that the ribbon was seated. Besides the limiter switches not working, the machine carves fine; I am tired of getting the multiple bits in the same location for my multibit cuts. Thanks for any insight or tips.

12

Welcome to to the community.
The default settings for the X Carve does not use the micro switches for travel limit.
They are instead used for homing.
Does your machine home correctly?

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13

This will not fix the switches, but it will correct the multi bit carve issue with the bits not properly aligning as a result of the bit swap.

As for the limit switches not working at all even when manually pressed, I would unplug and re-plug that ribbon cable. The ribbon cable itself uses the top of the connector to slice the jacket and pinch into the wire, so it’s possible that one of the connectors is defective and not getting a good connection to the wire itself. with multiple of them not working though I’d bet it’s the signal wire as I believe that is shared and the signal back is the only part that’s separate to identify each switch. so likely it’s the signal wire that’s jacked.

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